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C and O isotopes in a deep-sea coral ( Lophelia pertusa) related to skeletal microstructure

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Cold-Water Corals and Ecosystems

Part of the book series: Erlangen Earth Conference Series ((ERLANGEN))

Abstract

Lophelia pertusa is a deep-sea scleractinian coral (azooxanthellate) found on the continental margins of the major world oceans. Built of aragonite it can be precisely dated and measured for stable isotope composition (C–O) to reconstruct past oceanic conditions. However, the relation between stable isotope and skeleton microstructures, i.e. centres of calcification and surrounding fibres, is crucial for understanding the isotopic patterns. Values for δ18O and δ13C in Lophelia pertusa were determined at a micrometer scale using an ion microprobe (SIMS - Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry). In this coral species, centres of calcification are large (50 µm) and arranged in lines. The centres of calcification have a restricted range of variation in δ18O (−2.8 ± 0.3 ‰ (V-PDB)), and a larger range in δ13C (14.3 to 10.9 ‰ (V-PDB)). Surrounding skeletal fibres exhibit large isotopic variation both for C and O (up to 12 ‰) and δ13C and δ18O are positively correlated. The C and O isotopic composition of the centres of calcification deviate from this linear trend at the lightest δ18O values of the surrounding fibres. The fine-scaled variation of δ18O is probably the result of two processes: (1) isotopic equilibrium calcification with at least 1 pH unit variation in the calcification fluid and (2) kinetic fractionation. The apparent δ13C disequilibrium in Lophelia pertusa may be the result of mixing between depleted δ13C metabolic CO2 (respiration) and DIC coming directly from seawater. This study underlines the close relationship between microstructure and stable isotopes in corals. This relationship must also be taken into consideration for major elements like Mg and trace elements (U-Sr-Ba) increasing the reliability of the geochemical tools used in paleoceanography.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement (LSCE) Unité mixte de Recherche CEA-CNRS, Bât. 12, Avenue de la Terrasse, F-91198, Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France

    Dominique Blamart, Anne Juillet-Leclerc & Audrey Lutringer

  2. CRPG-CNRS, BP 20, 15, rue Notre-Dame des Pauvres, F-54500, Vandoeuvrelès-Nancy, France

    Claire Rollion-Bard

  3. Université de Paris XI, Faculté des Sciences, Bat 504 Géologie, F-91405, Orsay Cédex, France

    Jean-Pierre Cuif

  4. Koninklijk Nederlands Instituut voor Onderzoek der Zee (NIOZ), P.O. Box 59, NL-1790 AB, Den Burg, Texel, The Netherlands

    Tjeerd C. E. van Weering

  5. Renard Centre of Marine Geology, Gent University, Krijgslaan 281, S8, B-9000, Gent, Belgium

    Jean-Pierre Henriet

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  1. Dominique Blamart
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  6. Tjeerd C. E. van Weering
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Paleontology, Erlangen University, Loewenichstr. 28, D-91054, Erlangen, Germany

    André Freiwald

  2. Dunstaffnage Marine Laboratory, Scottish Association for Marine Science, Oban, Argyll, PA37 1QA, UK

    J. Murray Roberts

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Blamart, D. et al. (2005). C and O isotopes in a deep-sea coral ( Lophelia pertusa) related to skeletal microstructure. In: Freiwald, A., Roberts, J.M. (eds) Cold-Water Corals and Ecosystems. Erlangen Earth Conference Series. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-27673-4_50

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